Chapter 28 - Rhea
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Rhea
The sheriff hadn’t mentioned any names during the meeting, but his statements did help to calm people down.
In the end, Calder had been slightly shaken, but as usual, he didn’t show much of it externally.
He’d answered a few more questions when people had calmed down, and the meeting ended shortly after that.
When we left, I’d heard speculations about who the arsonist could be, but none of the guys would confirm any names with me. I understood that; even if we were in a relationship, they couldn’t just blab confidential information to me.
Calder had dropped me off at home and the three of them had left in silence, all frustrated with the situation. Ash was particularly angry with the public, mentioning that things would have been much worse if it hadn’t been for the firefighters actually doing their job.
In the days following, I heard snippets of conversation in the neighborhood, blaming random people for the fires.
“You know Aaron has been getting into trouble at school, and his parents are never home. Teenagers do all kinds of dangerous things.”
“Janice has been cheating, her husband is a firefighter. Maybe she wanted to keep him busy so she’d have more time to spend on her affair.”
“Maybe it’s one of the Petersons, they’ve never fit in. Weird family.”
I didn’t really know most of the people that the rumors were swirling around, but there were some neighbors that looked at me with suspicion, too.
Once or twice, I caught glances thrown my way, and whispers that stopped as I passed by.
I could understand that some of the suspicion would fall on me, given that I often spent time with the men from the station and that I’d just moved in.
They were connections that I couldn’t ignore, and that others could take the wrong way.
But I kept my head down and didn’t gossip with everyone else, even the one or two times that Jackie stopped by to check in on me.
I didn’t want to add to the rumors and make things worse for the guys.
They were already under a ton of public pressure and despite the fact that they were dealing with it nobly, I knew that they had to be frustrated with the whole situation.
They didn’t speak about it much, at least not to me, but I could see it in their faces.
It had been a tough few days, but the festival was coming up, and I hoped that it would distract people from the whole situation.
It was distracting me, at the very least. While I was standing by my bay window, contemplating everything, I heard my phone’s notification tone from the kitchen. When I checked, it was a message from my mom.
So excited to see you tomorrow! Will let you know when we’re on the way.
I blinked a few times. I’d completely forgotten that I was supposed to get ready for my parents to stay over for the festival. My head had been somewhere else entirely for days.
Luckily, there wasn’t that much to do. The house was clean enough, and with the guys’ help, I’d gotten all of my furniture and bits and bobs in place. But I did have to get the guest room ready, and make sure that my mom’s awful shell lamp was somewhere visible.
“Suppose I could put it on the nightstand in there,” I muttered to myself as I headed for the closet where I’d stuffed it deep behind everything else to keep it out of sight.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized my rough treatment hadn’t broken it, and carried it to the guest bedroom to set it up.
The lamp didn’t really match with the rest of the room’s decor, but I didn’t think that mattered too much.
I did have a set of sheets that had at least some light blue and peach tones in them that could balance it out a little bit.
Either way, at least it was there, and my mom wouldn’t have her feelings hurt.
If I’d forgotten the lamp, I knew that I wouldn’t have heard the end of it.
I got the sheets out of the linen closet and started setting them up, humming a tune I’d heard on the radio earlier in the day.
Halfway through, a familiar but strange smell hit my nose.
Smoke? I thought with a frown, glancing around the room. I didn’t have any candles lit, and I was sure there weren’t any in the rest of the house.
But where was that smell coming from, then?
I hoped that someone was just barbecuing and had burnt some food, but most of the windows in my house were closed, and the smell was fairly clear. I had to make sure that it wasn’t coming from somewhere inside.
Please don’t be bad, I thought as I put the half-done sheets down and left the guest room.
I quickly realized that the source wasn’t upstairs, and I went down into the hallway leading from the foyer toward the living room and kitchen.
Here, the smell was stronger, and I followed it through the living room to the kitchen.
For a moment, I worried that I’d left the stove on or something, but I couldn’t find the source there, either.
By now, there was only one place left to check; the basement.
I wondered whether I should call the guys instead of checking it out myself.
But they were under a lot of pressure and I had already been enough of a distraction.
If it wasn’t anything serious, then I’d only be wasting their time. I needed to make sure first.
I grabbed a kitchen towel and tested the door handle to the basement tentatively with one finger.
It was warm, but not hot. As far as I knew, that was a good sign.
It meant that if there was a fire, it hadn’t reached the basement stairs and it wasn’t that hot yet.
It was possible that it was still small enough that I could deal with it on my own.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher that the guys had insisted I keep in the kitchen and returned to the basement door before opening it. I switched on the light and noticed the faint trails of smoke climbing up the stairs.
I descended them carefully, testing each one to make sure they wouldn’t break. I wasn’t about to injure myself and make the whole situation worse.
Oh, the boiler, I thought when I was about halfway down.
I saw the flames coming from it, as well as a thickening plume of smoke.
It wasn’t that big yet, but I didn’t exactly want to mess with a burning boiler.
This was definitely a job for the guys, and I had to get them here before something exploded.
I hurried back up to grab my phone before going out onto the porch and dialing Calder’s number, hoping neither Ash nor Beck would take offense that I chose to reach out to him first.
“Hey,” Calder’s voice was happy when he answered. “What’s up?”
“Actually, I have a minor emergency —” I started, but he cut me off before I could explain the rest.
“We’ll be there in two minutes,” he said, and the call ended right there and then. I shook my head at the phone screen with some amusement before I headed onto the lawn to wait for them.
Exactly two minutes later, just like Calder had said, the three of them were running across the lawn toward me. They were half-dressed and almost frantic.
“What’s going on?” Ash yelled before they reached me, and Calder immediately started checking me over.
“Are you okay?” he asked, as Beck glanced over my shoulder toward the house. “Are you injured?”
“I’m fine,” I insisted, though Calder didn’t entirely seem like he believed me. “Seriously, I’m alright. It’s the boiler. It’s on fire.”
“What?” Calder snapped, already heading for the door with his box of equipment. “Beck, stay with her, do an assessment. Ash, let’s get this sorted out.”
Ash ran after him, and they moved with the same intensity that they did when that house was on fire. I thought it was a bit of an overreaction, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t really know how serious a boiler fire was, or if it had gotten worse since I’d stepped outside.
“Look at the light,” Beck instructed, flashlight in hand, and I laughed.
“Seriously, I’m not hurt,” I insisted, shaking my head. “I just saw the smoke, came out, and called you guys. It’s not that bad.”
Beck nodded, but he didn’t seem entirely convinced. “Guess we’re feeling a little protective over you under recent circumstances. Calder grabbed us and dragged us out, didn’t really explain anything aside from saying that you were in trouble.”
“Yeah, sorry,” I said awkwardly. “He didn’t really give me a chance to say what was wrong. Just said you were coming.”
“At least now you know that we’ll be there no matter what,” Beck winked at me, and put an arm around my shoulder. “But I’m glad you’re alright. Ash would destroy anyone who dares to harm a hair on your head. So would I, and so would Calder, to be fair.”
I smiled and leaned into his chest. “I know. I appreciate that.”
“Still, you really should let us get this place up to code before it falls down right on top of you,” Beck said, ruffling my hair.
It was pretty good to know that I had three incredibly capable men to lean on in any emergency; but I also hoped they’d dial it down when things really weren’t that serious.
About fifteen minutes later, Calder and Ash came back outside, both wearing deep frowns.
Immediately, I was more concerned than I had been before, hoping that the fire hadn’t done too much damage.
I’d already spent a lot of money on the house, and I didn’t have any savings left for this kind of thing.
There was insurance, but I didn’t want to make a claim this fast; otherwise, premiums would likely skyrocket.
“Listen, it might be better for you to stay with one of us for a while, Rhea,” Calder said when they reached Beck and I, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Did it do that much damage?” I asked, but Ash shook his head.
“No, I’m sure everything will be fixed fairly quickly, that’s not the problem,” he started, his voice tight. “I inspected the boiler. It’s not an accident. I think someone messed with the wiring on purpose. This was arson.”